Shepherd University social work program receives grant funding

ISSUED: 2 September 2009
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
(Shepherd University social work program receives grant funding)

Shepherdstown, WV--The Department of Social Work at Shepherd University received a grant from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) for the 2009-10 fiscal year in the amount of $171,663. Co-principal investigators are Dr. Geri Crawley-Woods and Dr. Douglas C. Horner. With this award, the program has secured $1.75 million in outside funding support for the mission and goals of Shepherd and the social work program.

The grant is funded through Title IV-E of the Social Security Act and has three primary functions. This funding supports social work students with tuition assistance during their undergraduate education. The grant provides funds for on-going training to staff and supervisors of DHHR throughout the 15 county region of eastern West Virginia and other areas of the state. The training is provided in a number of areas focusing on ethics in child welfare, substance abuse, mental health (child and adult), culturally sensitive practice, issues of separation experienced by children in foster care, engaging absent fathers, and kinship care.

An additional training area is under the direction of Amy Hampton, PRIDE coordinator and regional child welfare trainer. This initiative provides a series of workshops for potential foster parents at several sites in the eastern region of the state. This training is part of a statewide effort to increase the number of potential foster and adoptive parents to meet the needs of the 3,000 children in West Virginia who are in foster care. In the last fiscal year, Hampton and her staff of contracted trainers prepared 180 individuals for beginning foster care service.

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